Four victims. Four different locations. One strange mark on the bodies and one geographical link: all were born in Voineasa. In this slim Romanian noir novel, trained killer Sergiu Manta and police inspector Marius Stanescu are forced to work together to find out how these four disparate deaths are connected. Sergiu has his orders and […]
Ok, I’ll admit it. When my daughter brought this home from the school library, I snaffled it. I mean, I let her read it first, obviously. I had fond memories of reading Ibbotson’s ‘Journey to the River Sea’ when I was teaching English and, when my daughter read the first few pages aloud to me, […]
You made a mistake. But they’re saying it’s murder. As taglines go, this one is definitely an eye-catcher, even an eyebrow-raiser. But does it keep its implicit promises, of drama, tension and thrills? I’m pleased to report that it certainly does. What’s it about? I’m going to pinch the blurb for this one: Every Monday, […]
‘It was that point in the evening which the poetic might call crepuscular.’ Welcome to Heather Peck’s Norfolk, a world where hare coursers and arsonists are causing trouble, and two young children have been missing for three long months. Norfolk and Suffolk police are low on manpower and hampered by Covid protocols, but crime has […]
Astrid Webb is missing, but she’s also sick and usually stays at home. Bryan Webb arrives home from a cycle ride to find the police waiting outside his perfect countryside cottage to inform him that they’ve found his wife’s car, with blood inside, abandoned near the woods. Bryan immediately has questions: why had Astrid left […]
Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers. Not because she’s a police officer in a sleepy American town, where most offences are so minor they’re barely worth ticketing, but because she survived being kidnapped by one in her teens. Now an adult, Ellery fiercely guards her past secrets, but she also knows […]
I’m delighted to be the first stop on the blog tour today for ‘Bambi’ on Audrey. Yes, ‘Bambi’, written by Felix Salten, newly translated and introduced by Jack Zipes to celebrate 100 years since the original publication, and read by John Chancer. You may be familiar with the Disney film, but Salten’s original novel was […]
You don’t remember her but she remembers you. Intriguing, yes? According to the Daily Telegraph, this is ‘[an] exquisitely sinister psychological thriller’, but, for me, it barely felt like a thriller. Short version: one woman deliberately insinuates herself into another woman’s life in what feels like preparation for some kind of revenge and just as […]
‘Not long ago by old green trees, The spring brought sun and bumble bees.’ This collection of simple, rhyming poems about Roglins – fictional creatures who live in the woods – is supported by clear, black and white pictures that show the creatures at play and at rest. There’s a sense of progression as you […]
‘Children strain our everyday lives…but also deepen them.’ This quotation, as much as the full title of the book, perfectly encapsulates the content of ‘All Joy and No Fun: the Paradox of Modern Parenthood’. I started reading the opening pages and was immediately hooked (I love reading about research in an accessible way); I took […]